The Galactic Center in Infrared from 2MASS
Explanation:
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In
visible light, much of the
Galactic Center
is obscured by opaque
dust.
In
infrared light, however,
dust glows more and obscures less,
allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the
above
image.
The
Galactic Center
itself appears glowing
on the lower left and is located about 30,000
light years away towards the constellation of
Sagittarius.
The
Galactic Plane of our
Milky Way Galaxy, the plane in which the
Sun
orbits, is identifiable by the
dark diagonal dust lane.
The absorbing
dust grains are created in the atmospheres of cool
red-giant stars and grow in
molecular clouds.
The region directly surrounding the
Galactic Center
glows brightly in
radio and
high-energy radiation.
The Galactic Center is thought to house a large
black hole.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
